In 2020, the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) was the first scientific conference to move from in-person to virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the fifth anniversary of the virtual conference, and the pandemic, some of those earliest COVID-19 patients have still not recovered.
Breaking with a 30-year tradition, the U.S. FDA selected the strains for the next flu vaccine March 13 without convening its independent vaccine advisory committee. Instead, the agency brought together 15 scientific and public health experts from within the FDA, the CDC and the Department of Defense to make the recommendations for the next flu season. That group met the same day that the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee had been scheduled to make the selection.
Although safe and effective vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 have been successfully developed, there are currently no therapeutic approaches available for treating acute infection, particularly for individuals at high risk of severe disease progression, and for preparedness against a potential new coronavirus pandemic.
A combination of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibodies and genetic factors may be linked to an increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study led by scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Stanford University. “The Epstein-Barr virus has been a suspect for many years for having a role in causing MS. The evidence for it has increased though one has not really reached complete proof of its role,” Tomas Olsson told BioWorld.
Researchers from Shaanxi Panlong Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd., Shaanxi Pioneer Biotech Co. Ltd. and affiliated organizations presented the discovery and preclinical characterization of novel pleuromutilin antibiotics, designed as organ-targeted, multimechanism antimicrobial agents using organic cation transporter-mediated transport.
Latest findings on Healios K.K.’s stem cell therapy to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), coined Multistem (invimestrocel; HLCM-051), found the regenerative medicine effective in reducing the number of patient days on ventilator treatment, as well as mortality benefits.
The availability of effective antiretroviral therapy has lowered the risk, and the severity, of neural sequelae of HIV infection. “Early in the HIV pandemic, approximately 15% of people with HIV had dementia and or encephalitis,” Howard Fox told his audience. “Fortunately, with treatment, the prevalence of these severe disorders has been greatly lowered. But there is persistence of what are called more minor disorders – which are not minor if you have them.”
In 2020, the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) was the first scientific conference to move from in-person to virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the fifth anniversary of the virtual conference, and the pandemic, some of those earliest COVID-19 patients have still not recovered.
Shortly before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was to hold the first ever confirmation hearing for a U.S. CDC director March 13, it issued a statement saying the hearing was canceled due to the White House withdrawing its nomination of Dave Weldon, a physician and former congressman from Florida.
It was previously demonstrated that the HIV-1 integrase (IN)-interacting host factor INI1/SMARCB1 binds to HIV-1 IN through its Rpt1 domain of INI1 (INI1-Rpt1) and plays a key role in assembly and particle production.